Why has Apple manufactured their computers with soldered cpu's instead of the socket system that pc's have. Wouldn't this make a computer obsolete faster?
Apparently the new Intel Macs now have this feature...
If the Intel Macs have socketed CPUs that would be great.
Actually, many of the PPC Macs and beyond had upgradeable processor slots/sockets (when it came to tower/desktop, non-all-in-one units). There are/were 604(e), 603e, G3 and G4 processor upgrades for PPCs, G3's, and G4's.
I think it's only with the G5 processor towers that upgrades haven't been available for non-all-in-one machines. I think the reason for that is the whole box is designed with those thermal zones etc that would probably make it more challenging to tinker with it. I've heard it suggested that the G4 tower design was "too successful" in that the boxes were "too upgradeable" and therefore people wouldn't have to buy a new machine quite so often.
(Personally, I love the G4 tower design and prefer it over the style of the G5.)
As far as being obsolete faster, it's been said that Macs have typically maintained their value longer than Wintel boxes/people hold onto their Macs longer. Apple, for the most part, tried to keep their user base happy by making much of their hardware/OSs backwards-compatible with older tech for as long as they could. (now maybe it was the COST of the new hardware that made people hold onto their machines longer :D) (with use of many more platform independent pieces of hardware like RAM, IDE HDs, keyboards, mice and other USB peripherals (and video cards, in some cases) (and possibly processors now), the cost of a new Mac shouldn't be as great as it once was. The resale won't be as much either, of course, as we can see with the Mac minis already.) Though these days, unless you are trying to do some major CPU intensive type process, I can't see many people needing much more power than we have available right now (or have had for the past few years). Most people don't need honking processors if you're just surfing the web, checking email, flipping through pictures, and playing MP3s. It's the digital media/HD stuff/high-end games where having the latest and greatest matters. I've only had to upgrade to an OS X machine because many web-pages don't seem to be supporting the older versions of the browsers that run on OS 9.
-Mike
Thanks for the reply.
This gets m to ask another question then, in case anyone can take a guess at this. I've read there's been some warring between the PC and Mac crowds. Have I missed something? My newish Imac is a pleasure to use, no headaches, few hassles, i can let the kids use it and it works flawlessly. What's there to not like? A windows pc on the other hand, I don't even want to go there. The only negative thing I've heard about Macs, as I somewhat mentionned originally, is from friends who told me in the past to stay away from Macs because you can't upgrade them. I'm going back ten years or so.
There are some (many?) PC and Mac enthusiasts who feel very strongly about their particular platforms, and some will go on and on at length about the merits of their particular platform/OS.
I have often witnessed threads on newsgroups/other forums break down into flame wars.
I'll agree with you (being a regular Mac user since 1992) that Macs are a pleasure to use most of the time.
re: Upgrading: since the PCI based PowerMacs, Macs have been quite upgradeable using many platform-independent components and "upgradeable" much like many of their PC counterparts. My wife had a PPC 9500 (introduced on market June 1995, discontinued November 1996), with 12 RAM slots and 6 PCI slots and 3+ bays for upgrades. (upon reflection it was a bit of over-kill for her) Over time, I added in a USB, a Firewire, and an IDE controller, upgraded the video card and processor, and increased the RAM and HD size. To me, that sounds like it's pretty upgradeable, and not unlike anything a PC user would do with their own machine.
If you don't buy a tower Mac, then yes, the types of upgrades available would be more limited, but I don't think that was the market the non-tower Macs were made for. At least it looks like Apple is allowing you to do more upgrades yourself. I think it used to be that only qualified Apple specialists could open your Mac's case without voiding your warranty. Now they have a section on their website detailing all of the Do-It-Yourself parts (user installable parts?), including nice step-by-step instructions with pictures.
-Mike
The reason you need to upgrade so often in PCs is a seperation of the software/hardware manufacturers. MS typically abandons hardware over 4 years old with each new O/S release. That is based on their recommended requirements, you want to run it well then your computer should be newer. It's a cycle, software = hardware replace = software purchase (included with new machine).
Apple makes the O/S and hardware. I read the relationship of software to hardware support is 7.5 years will Macs. It sounds about right with maybe the Mac OS 9 to X switch being a bump in the pattern.
I would think with the costs dropping and China ramping up then upgrading will no longer be a viable option/market. I mean how many people with G4/400 actually spent $400+ to get CPU and O/S upgrades when you could get a new Mac mini for $629 with OS 10.4?
Ed